“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.
"See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My
hands..."

Isaiah 49:15-16

The
unthinkable had happened! King
Ahasuerus, the mighty ruler over the vast Persian Empire had been
humiliated in front of officials from his 127 provinces
that stretched
"from India to Ethiopia"! On the seventh day of
his
lavish celebration, he had sent for
his beautiful wife, Queen Vashti. But she was busy
and refused
to come.

The king was furious!
To counter this public insult, his "wise men"
suggested that he dispose of his queen and find "another
who is better than she." Soon a message was
passed
throughout the empire inviting beautiful
young virgins to compete for the royal position. The
king would choose his replacement

Today we
might frown on such lofty display of royal power, but God used it to
save His people. For
behind the scenes, a deadly battle was being
fought. A major player in this drama was Mordecai, a third
generation exile from Israel. His grandfather, Kish,
was among the first Jews to be "carried away" to Babylon
decades earlier -- a tragic consequence of
their rebellion against their Lord.

Mordecai's
much younger cousin, whom he had raised as his own daughter, was the sweet and beautiful Esther. With
her inner as well as outer beauty, she quickly won the heart
of the king. But her
Jewish heritage remained a secret, for Mordecai "had charged her not to reveal it."

An evil plot
serves God's eternal plan

While Esther lived inside the royal compound, Mordecai
spent his days waiting and
pacing near the king's gate, hoping to hear from her.
That's just where God wanted him, for one day he overheard
an angry conversation between two doorkeepers
plotting to harm the king. Mordecai told Queen Esther, and
she warned
the king -- giving credit to Mordecai. Court
officials confirmed the threats, and the two men
were hanged. The event was documented in the
royal chronicles -- then quickly forgotten.

"I will give you
the ... hidden riches of secret places,
﻿﻿That you may know that I, the Lord... Am the God of Israel."
Isaiah 45:3

Hatred
for Jews
can't block God's love for His people

"King Ahasuerus
promoted Haman... and set his seat above all the princes who were with
him." The fact that Haman was an Amalekite -- from a nation that
had repeatedly tried to annihilate Israel -- would hardly
matter to the king. But Mordecai was alarmed. So when
everyone else bowed to Haman, Mordecai
refused.

In other
words, he was flaunting
the "politically correct" rules of his times!
And
Mordecai's Jewishness didn't help lessen the offense. Furious
at such lack of submission, Haman
determined to "destroy all the Jews." His
complaint to the king was a deceptive blend of facts and lies
-- not unlike some of today's media messages:

“There is a
certain people scattered and dispersed among the people
in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are
different from all other people’s, and they do not keep
the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the
king to let them remain. If it pleases the king, let
a decree be written that they be destroyed....”(3:8-9)

The king
agreed and gave Haman his
official "signet ring." "The money and the people are given to
you," he said, "to do with them as seems
good to you.”

Before
long, a new law
was written "according to all that Haman commanded."
Then letters were
sent "into all the king’s provinces, to
destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews,
both young and old, little children and women, ﻿in
one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month... and to plunder their possessions."
The masses must be prepared to join in the massacre.

When Mordecai
heard the tragic news, he tore his clothes and
"cried out with a loud and bitter cry." Esther,
too, "was deeply distressed"
and sent a servant outside to seek counsel from Mordecai.
He sent back a "copy of the written decree for their destruction" and encouraged her to appeal to
the king on behalf of her people.

“Do not
think," he warned her, "that you will escape in the king’s
palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you
remain completely silent at this time, relief and
deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place,
but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who
knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a
time as this?" (4:13-14)

Trusting
her only true Source of wisdom, she
answered,

"Go, gather
all the Jews who are present in Shushan,
and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three
days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise.
And so I will go to the king, which is against the law;
and if I perish, I perish!"

(4:16)

"Show me Your ways, O
Lord... Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

for You are the God of
my salvation; on You I wait all the day."

Psalm 25:4-5

Esther's
patience points to God's
wise timing

After the fast, Esther dressed in her royal robes and
walked into the inner court where the king sat.
"What is your request?"
he asked. "It shall be given to
you.”

"If it pleases the king, let
the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have
prepared for him,” she answered.

Later that
same day, the three
feasted together, and the king
repeated his question. But all Esther
asked was that they meet again for a second "banquet" the next day.

Notice her
amazing patience. The request on her heart was a
matter of life or death for her people across the empire, but she
knew she must wait. There was no need to hurry as
God unveiled His perfect plan! She didn't know what
He would do in the next 20 hours. But she would soon
marvel at two special events that were
essential to God's perfect victory.

First: As Haman was leaving the royal premises, he ran into Mordecai.
Raging at this despicable Jew who refused to
"tremble before him," Haman rushed home. To
soothe his hurts, he quickly gathered his friends
to tell them about the honors granted him by the
king.

“Queen Esther
invited no one but me to come in with the king to the
banquet," he boasted, "and tomorrow I am again
invited by her, along with the king. Yet all this
avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew
sitting at the king’s gate.”

They all
agreed that Mordecai must die. “Let a gallows be made,"
they told him. "...suggest to the king that
Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with the king
to the banquet.” Satisfied, Haman ordered the gallows to be
built. After all, he had the authority. The king's signet ring
was on his finger.

Second
event: The king couldn't sleep that night! An inner nudging
prompted him to call for a servant to help him check "the
book of the records." There, among recent
entries, he discovered that Mordecai
had saved his life! Such valor deserved a reward! Yet, nothing
had been done for him!

What
wonderful timing! What a great God we serve! And what
a perfect moment for Haman
to arrive with his devious suggestion: Hang Mordecai on the
new gallows
built just for him.

But before
Haman could speak those words, the king asked him, “What
shall be done for the man whom the king delights to
honor?”

Of course,
the
arrogant Haman assumed that he would be the
public hero. After all, “whom would the king
delight to honor more than me?" So he listed
all the things that he would want: a royal robe, a
horse that the king had ridden, a parade through the city,
etc.

But
the king had a different plan. “Hurry," he
said, "take the robe
and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for
Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave
nothing undone of all that you have spoken.” (6:10)

Poor
self-centered Haman. Now he had to honor Mordecai with a
royal robe, horse, and parade
in spite of his bitter hate. As soon as he finished this
painful
task, he rushed home "with
his head covered."

"He who
digs a pit will fall into it." Ecclesiastes
10:8

When Haman
arrived that evening for Esther's second banquet,
angst had replaced his arrogance. And he had reason to
fear when the king turned to Esther with his usual
question, "What
is your request...? It shall be done.”

Notice how Esther's
gracious answer demonstrates faith, courage and
loyalty both to God and to His chosen people -- the
beloved
nation He had taught, disciplined,
and was even now restoring:

“If I have
found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the
king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my
people at my request. For we have been sold, my
people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be
annihilated."

(7:4)

Shocked,
the king asks,
“Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in
his heart to do such a thing?”

Esther
answered, “The adversary and enemy is
this wicked Haman!”

"Then the king arose in his wrath" and went
outside, while Haman begged Esther to save his life. When the king returned,
Haman had "fallen across the couch where Esther was." The enraged king
asked,
'Will he also assault the queen while I am in the
house?'"

That same moment, one of the eunuchs
who may have heard the conversations,
said, "Look! The gallows, fifty cubits
high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf,
is standing at the house of Haman."

"Hang him on it!" said the king.

"So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he
had prepared for Mordecai."

Man's
conspiracy highlights God's supremacy

The crisis
was not yet over, so again Esther
appeals to the king, tearfully imploring him to block Haman's
deadly plot:

“If it pleases the king, and
if I have found favor in his sight... let it be written to revoke the
letters devised by Haman... which he
wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s
provinces. For how can I endure to see the evil
that will come to my people?"

(8:5-6)

Then King Ahasuerus
told Esther and
Mordecai, "Indeed, I have given Esther the
house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows
because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. You
yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you
please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s
signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name
and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can
revoke."

So the
royal scribes wrote a new law "according to all
that Mordecai commanded." It was sent to the Jews,
governors and princes of all the provinces from India
to Ethiopia... to every people in their own language, and to
the Jews in their own script and language."

"The Jews had
light and gladness, joy and honor.
And in every province and city, wherever the
king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and
gladness, a feast and a holiday. Then many of the
people of the land became Jews..."(8:16-17)

"For I will set My eyes
on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I
will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and
not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that
I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their
God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart."
Jeremiah 24:6-7

Note 1: King Ahasuerus is often referred to as Xerxes I,
the son of King Darius who helped re-establish the Jews in Israel. Ahasuerus
ruled the vast empire which reached to the borders of Greece in the
northwest, to Ethiopia in southwest and to India in the
east.

Note 2: Whenever ancient Israel rejected God's Word and
turned to idols, God withdrew His hand of protection
over His land. Again and again, they were ravaged and
oppressed by surrounding nations. And when they repented
and turned back "with all their heart", God forgave and
restored. Finally, after pagan idols desecrated His holy
temple, He allowed Babylon to conquer their land,
destroy Jerusalem and exile most of their people. See Chart: Old Testament Cycle